“Through elevation onto the plinth and removal from common ground,
the body becomes a metaphor, a symbol and allows us to reflect on the
diversity, vulnerability and particularity of the individual in contemporary
society.
A.N. Other ‘artiste’ speaks:
“For me it's a celebration of London's immense ethnic wealth,
giving expression to and honouring the many cultures and ethnicities
that are still breathing precious wind into the sails of the UK.”
And what are they going on about?
“More than 2,400 people will occupy Trafalgar Square's fourth
plinth over 100 days as part of a living artwork.”
One hour of ‘fame’ each 24 hours
a day.
Don’t just stand there!
Uhhh urrrrhh - perhaps it’s
better you do just stand there.
algae growing plant that makes 1.5 to 2.5 litres
oil a day. Image: algaelink.com
Are these people confused, or can they switch fluently
between dollars, euro, gallons, litres?
Is the chaos of information offered part of the salesman’s
smokescreen?
The kit includes “6 meters of
transparent synthetic tubes with a diameter of 300 mm Ø with
a total volume of 3.5 m³, with a warranty of “0 years on
the tubes”.
“The unit produce [...] between 1.5 L to 2.5 L oil per day”
and “Algae oil is sold (today September,
2007) as high as $ 3.00 per gallon” [1
US gallon = 3.8 litres]
“Delivery times for the demo photo-bioreactor is 8 weeks. Delivery
times for large scale photo-bioreactors are approximately 4 to 6 months.”
“Payment terms: 60% by ordering; 40% before shipping”
These people must see the marks - sorry, customers
- coming right from the other side of the Atlantic [algaelink.com is based
in the Netherlands].
This software was created to scientifical analyse flocking
behaviour, but it makes pretty patterns as well:
“Systems composed of a large number of interacting heterogeneous
agents often display complex properties that cannot be deduced in a
simple way by studying the behaviour of the single agent. This research
aims to study three-dimensional complex pattern formation, in order
to get a strong insight into features that may be relevant in more complex
situations where the components move in a high dimensional configuration
space. Animal group movements look very promising in this respect and
we will concentrate our attention on the flocking behaviour of starlings,
representing perhaps the best widely known example for the above class
of behaviours.[...] Our goals are the following:
“a) By getting three-dimensional reconstructions of their movements,
we aim to characterize experimentally in a quantitative and qualitative
way these movements. [...]
“b) We want to construct new models that give rise to such complex
group behaviour. The experimental data should be crucial in inspiring
these models and to discriminate possible differences among them.
“c) We intend to interpret the biological meaning and relevance
of the formation of thesepatterns.
“d) As far as collective movements are common phenomena also
in human behaviour (particular relevant in economics) we would like
to explore the possibility of exporting the models and the techniques
to economic collective choices. In this way we try to develop ways to
investigate the reasons of social events, e.g. fashions, to understand
socio-economic herding, and possibly to devise methods to tame dangerous
excessive market fluctuations.”
Japanese astronaut, Takao Doi, took two paper boomerangs
with him when he was part of the recent Space Shuttle Endeavour trip
to the International Space Station.
Yasuhiro Togai, 2006 world boomerang champion, taught
Takao Doi how to throw a boomerang and provided the ’rangs.
The question Togai wanted answered was, “Does
a boomerang fly in zero gravity?”.
“A father-of-four has been left with a criminal record for overfilling
his wheelie bin by four inches.
“Gareth Corkhill, 26, of Whitehaven, Cumbria, received a £110
fixed penalty notice after Copeland Council staff photographed his raised
bin lid.
“When he refused to pay he was taken to court where magistrates
added a further £115 to the fixed penalty.”
—
“ "Two days later two enforcement officers turn up on my doorstep
wearing stab vests, read my rights and then issued me with an on-the-spot
fine.
“ "I recycle and all my boxes are always full.
“Mr Corkhill, who shares a house with his partner and three children
and also has a child from a previous relationship, said the authority
recently switched from weekly to fortnightly refuse collections, but
added that the supplied bins were not big enough to cope.”
— [From a Whitehaven jobsworth:] “ "It
is important that we all reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill.
“ "We can do this by recycling more of what is in our bins,
and we would advise anyone who has a problem with too much waste to look
at what can be recycled." ”
Try and understand jobsworths. The objective is not
to provide bin space or rubbish removal, the objective is to maximise
income.
That can be achieved in three ways:
halving collection frequency
halving bin size
increasing fines.
No. 2 has the problem of providing for, and therefore
paying for, more bins, and the jobsworths have to do
twice as much work every two weeks.
No. 3 has the associated problems of reprinting forms,
retraining jobsworths and squeezing increasing amounts out of the poor.
Obviously, the most satisfactory and cost effective
method is the method chosen by Whitehaven Council.
You require intelligence to be a politician. These
are not simple problems.
It is also the duty of politicians to increase employment.
Thus, to drive the offender into penury will provide more work for tax
inspectors and dole executives to replace the money purloined from ‘the
offender’.
With real effort, imprisonment could follow with much
benefit to builders, prison officers, probation operatives, rehabilitation
services and others.
Finally, remember the common British ‘solution’
for too much rubbish is to drive a few miles and dump the unwanted trash outside
someone else’s abode, or in a skip, or on some lonesome embankment.
The new coins for the United Kingdom of England,
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Image: Paul Grover
The new, official coinage for the United Kingdom, or
Great Britain as it used to be more commonly known, has no image of Britannia,
the lady that has symbolised Great Britain for centuries.
Instead, the coins show the royal coat of arms in fragments.
One wonders at the (unconscious) messages being given out.
“Each year, farmers in the town of Inakadate in Aomori prefecture
create works of crop art by growing a little purple and yellow-leafed
kodaimai rice along with their local green-leafed tsugaru-roman variety.”
2007:
Rice paddy pictures of two of Hokusai’s 36 Views
of Mount Fuji. Image:am.askanet.ne.jp
